Maria Guadalupe Gonzalez, of Mexico, reacts after crossing the finish line in second place in the women's 20-km race walk at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — After missing out on an Olympic medal with fourth-place finishes in both Beijing and London, Liu Hong of China won the gold medal in the women's 20-kilometer walk Friday at the Rio de Janeiro Games.

"It means a lot to me. I have been doing this sport for more than 10 years now," said the 29-year-old Hong, who made her move about 100 meters from the finish line to beat Maria Guadalupe Gonzalez.

Gonzalez claimed Mexico's first medal of the 2016 Games. She is only the second Mexican to win an Olympic track medal after Ana Guevara won silver in the women's 400 meters at the 2004 Athens Games.

Gonzalez was leading the last few laps with Hong right behind until the finish line was in sight. Then, Hong swept past her and finished in 1 hour, 28 minutes, 35 seconds, two seconds ahead of Gonzalez and seven seconds in front of bronze medalist Lu Xiuzhi of China.

Hong is the world-record holder in the 20K walk, setting the leading mark of 1:24:38 last year, one that wouldn't be challenged Friday on a steamy afternoon in Rio.

"It was hard because the weather wasn't that good," Hong said. "The only thing I could do was keep going, do my best and try to make it perfect."

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This story has been corrected to show the winning time was 1:28:35, not 1:38:25.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Relatives of Jesse Owens and America's 17 other black athletes from the 1936 Olympics were welcomed to the White House on Thursday by President Barack Obama for the acknowledgement they didn't receive along with their white counterparts 80 years ago.

Along with the relatives of the 1936 African-American Olympians, gloved-fist protesters Tommie Smith and John Carlos and members of the 2016 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams met the president and first lady Michelle Obama. Obama congratulated the Rio athletes, thanked Smith and Carlos for waking up Americans in 1968 and praised 1936 Olympians who made a statement in front of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany.

TOKYO (AP) — An expert panel set up by Tokyo's newly elected governor says the price tag of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics could exceed $30 billion unless drastic cost-cutting measures are taken. That's more than a four-fold increase from the initial estimate at the time Tokyo was awarded the games in 2013.